Echoes of Spiders and Soldiers
by Serias
Summary: After the events of Black Widow Hunt, Natasha Romanoff searches for answers. Pieces of her memory have clearly been recently altered, and she begins her journey to find the missing pieces.


It takes a few days before she really starts to notice that something is out of the ordinary...Natasha has grown accustomed to fragmented memories, which overlap in ways that she knows mean some portion of them is an implant. Most of them are from the times before she defected, when the Soviets still saw fit to twist her mind for whatever her mission was. But what concerned her about what she had noticed recently, is the memories that were tampered within the last 5 years or so. Fury had assured her that SHIELD had had done nothing but restore her recent memories and wipe out Novokov's implantations though she recognized a glint in his eye. Nick Fury was by far one of the best espoinage agents in the world, he had seen a lot and survived more. He was a good liar, deception was his purpose in life. It was also Natasha's. The more she interacted with the people she considered friends and teammates, the more elusive things became. It was as if they were all in on some elaborate plot, ensuring that something was kept from her. It was a grave mistake...

Secrets did not remain silent from the Black Widow.

Even if she had no earthly idea of what those secrets were, she would use all the skills at her disposal to make sure she discovered what was being kept from her. For weeks, she acted normally, allowing those around her to believe that she was well healed and unharmed by her recent abduction. It was not the first time she had been used as a pawn in someone else's game, and she doubted it would be the last. There was little information to be found on Leo Novokov that she was not already aware of, though she was not entirely sure as to why he targeted her. The best she could assume was that he wanted to make the Soviets pay, by turning their most deadly weapon back on them.

When Natasha felt that everyone around her was significantly reassured she was back to her 'old' self, she fell back to one of her safe houses in New York. A few years ago, when Imus Champion had targeted her, she had been forced to alter the network of information she had amassed over the years. The stab wound and near death experience had convinced her that perhaps keeping the intelligence within her body was not the best plan. If Imus had discovered it, it was likely he did not keep the information to himself. It had taken some doing, but there was a reason why she had chosen the safe house in Brooklyn to figure this whole thing out. Within a smaller weapons closet, hung there like a museum relic, was her first pair of bracelets. There was a rather small plaque beneath them, with the inscription "From Russia, with love." When she had decided to done the classic weapons she had worn, she had convinced Tony Stark to help her craft a pair that functioned better than the originals. It was not surprising, since the previous models were crafted during the cold war. The obvious place would be to have the information hidden within the bracelets themselves, but they were merely a decoy. Natasha's fingers slid over the plaque, which was a finger print recognition device. A hazy "V" shaped light protruded from what previously looked like a loose screw, scanning her features. She spoke the password clearly, "One, Delta, Tango, Seven, Alpha, Echo, Three, Victor, Sierra, Whiskey, Nine." The sequence was random, as all good passwords were.

There was a slight sound of sweeping air, as the panel the bracelets retreated from view, and a computer screen slid upwards into their place. Her fingers began to move over the screen, attempting to access data files from the last few years. Much of the details of her previous mission was public knowledge, the teams she had served on, who she had served with. It was hard to keep everything a secret when they found all out war every couple of years. What she needed was the information that went deeper, the files she had kept on her compatriots over the years. She heard the footsteps behind her, but ignored them for a moment. Some had followed her, likely an Avenger or SHIELD agent that intended to 'help' her. Natasha pivoted quickly, pulling a pistol from the holster on her thigh, only to find herself faced with a blond clad in a white uniform. The woman already had her hands up, as if she had anticipated that Natasha was going to spring on her.

"Sharon Carter? What the Hell are you doing here?" Natasha asked, somewhat confused. Though they had worked together, and were fairly polite when they interacted, she did not consider them to be the best of friends.

"You won't find anything there. Fury swept it weeks ago. Pretty sure he had an LMD created for just that purpose." Sharon said, nonchalantly.

"The password...How?" Natasha asked, slowly lowering her fire arm and returning it to the holster.

"They pieced your memory back together Nat, figure he found a way to access it during that time." Sharon answered.

Natasha's hands slid to her hips, obviously frustrated. Fury was either trying to protect her, or protect something more important than her. "This has something to do with the man at the hospital, doesn't it? The one that came for me...What was his name? Bart? Bruce..."

"Bucky." Sharon offered, her tone very serious. "Yes, it does. Everyone has been asked not to rock the boat, not to put you through more than you've already gone through...I don't know you terribly well, Natasha, but I do know you wouldn't want this. Something was taken from you..." She paused, watching Natasha for a moment. "I just can't see you as the kind of person who wouldn't try to take it back." Sharon finished, with a stiff shrug of her shoulders.


End file.
